Design, fabrication and testing of a machine for shelling Jatropha Curcas seed
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Technoscience Journal for Community Development in Africa, KWASU Press
Abstract
Jatropha curcas L. seed is a nonedible drought-resistant seed rich in oil. In the extraction of the oil, the seeds are shelled to obtain the kernels. Shelling manually requires so much labour and time. Thus, this research was carried out to design and evaluate the performance of the jatropha seed shelling machine so as to address the challenges with the manual method. The moisture content of the seed was varied in the range of 6.8- 12.2% (wb), and the machine performance was evaluated. The results showed that the shelling efficiency of the machine and the percentage of whole kernel recovered decreased with increase in seed moisture content; while the percentage of broken kernel, machine efficiency, and percentage of unshelled seed followed a sinusoidal trend with moisture content variation. The percentage of whole kernel recovered and shelling efficiency were 23.3% and 73% at 8.2% (wb), respectively. The machine can therefore be used for jatropha seed shelling at different moisture contents.